


Downfall

by TheUnicornFountain



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Angst, Blood, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 20:03:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4800494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUnicornFountain/pseuds/TheUnicornFountain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new branch of the timeline is born in the depths of the Shadow Temple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Downfall

**Author's Note:**

> Another sad Hero of Time story that got into my head. Enjoy, thanks!

# Downfall

The wail cut through Navi’s small body, and her wings trembled. She faltered in her flight towards the temple’s exit and took a moment to land on a broken pillar to steady herself. Such an unnatural sound… She wouldn’t have thought it possible from the mouth that had been so often mum. It came again, echoing down the dark-stoned hall behind Navi, and she cried out herself.

_Navi…_

Navi’s light flickered when the disembodied voice found her. “Yes?” 

_You have done well, Navi._

“I don’t feel that way,” Navi whispered. “I don’t understand. Why does it have to be this way?”

_Without his death, a million lives will never be born. It is the branch upon which new fruit will blossom._

The wail came again, tinged with pain and despair. Navi turned around and looked down the dark hall. “Please… Please let me comfort him!”

_It would be unwise,_ the voice warned, but it didn’t deny the request. Navi flew off from the pillar at once and made her way back through the temple, keeping its shadows back with her natural glow. The wail came and went, guiding her, and sobs soon became audible behind the cries. 

She was supposed to do this ages ago, but something inside her insisted on putting the deed off. It would have been easier to get it done and over with at her first chance when he was smaller and weaker; when their friendship was almost nonexistent. But she hadn’t done it. The weeks passed, followed by seven long years in sleep, and still she hesitated until the pressure became too much. He couldn’t be allowed to enter the Spirit Temple. Playing with time there could mess up everything.

So Navi had neglected to mention the spike trap falling from the ceiling. Link noticed almost too late. Almost had been the difference between a quick death and this long suffering.

Navi flitted over the top of the trap with Link’s pain in her ears. He was as she had left him when she had claimed to go for help. His legs were pinned beneath the wide spikes. The pool of blood had grown, and a snapped bone had cut through his thigh in his efforts to free himself. The Triforce of Courage was reluctant to let its bearer go, and it was for its selfishness that Link still suffered. He looked up at Navi with strained, delirious eyes. His pale face gleamed with sweat, and his tunic was more red than green.

“I’m sorry, Link,” Navi whispered. “No help is coming.”

Link moaned and dropped onto his back. He couldn’t keep back another cry of pain. It tapered off into a whimper, and he sobbed, “Navi… Navi, please--”

“There’s no one to help!” Navi cut in, her voice high. Her grief ran over, and she found herself saying things best kept from Link’s ears. “I’m sorry, Link. I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You weren’t supposed to get this far. You weren’t supposed to succeed. They told me not to get attached… They said you had to die sooner or later…” She broke off into a sob of her own. “If only I was as brave as you, you wouldn’t be suffering like this!”

“Navi…” Link’s eyes rolled in their sockets. Was he too delirious from pain to understand her? But he lifted a palm like he had so often before, and Navi descended onto the bloodied gauntlet. He whispered to her, and she broke into tears. But it was the least she could do.

The longshot was on the threshold of her weight limit, and her grief ate away at her strength, but Navi managed to tug it free of Link’s belt and carry it up and over his heaving chest. She thought the hard part would be squeezing the handle, but the hook ratcheted down with eagerness, propelled by yards of tightly coiled chain. The blank look that came over Link’s eyes told her she had hit her target. 

The longshot clattered to the ground. Navi followed it when nausea overtook her small body. It wasn’t only her hand in Link’s death. The world itself was wavering; doubling. She watched the temple split away and spiral into darkness, taking with it Link’s body. In its place, green grass and tall trees emerged. Navi’s senses were overwhelmed by it all, and she fell into her own sort of darkness to escape it.

“Navi…”

Navi opened her eyes and felt a warm gaze fall upon her. She remembered the feeling of it, but this time it felt different. It was warmer and brighter, like the world around it. There was light and hope in every inch of the place.

“It seems the time has come for the boy without a fairy to begin his journey,” the Great Deku Tree went on to say. “The youth whose destiny is to lead Hyrule to the path of justice and truth…”


End file.
